Pressure
Hours before D-Day, General Eisenhower’s chief meteorologist warns of brutal weather – but doesn’t predict the stormy debate he now faces to save Allied lives.
In 72 hours, Allied forces will launch a mass invasion of Normandy to recapture Europe from the Nazis. Newly arrived at HQ, Scottish meteorologist Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott, Blue Moon, MIFF 2025) begs for a delay. His pioneering real-time weather observations are predicting heavy rain and high winds that will swamp boats or drive them calamitously off course. Ebullient US weatherman Irving P. Krick (Chris Messina, Call Jane, MIFF 2022), on the other hand, says Stagg’s just doomcasting, and that historical barometric charts indicate it’ll be positively balmy – which is just what arrogant British commander Bernard “Monty” Montgomery (Damian Lewis, Homeland) wants to hear. But the fate of the war, and the world, rests on whom General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser, The Whale) chooses to trust.
Australian director Anthony Maras (Hotel Mumbai) dramatises this underappreciated historical turning point with moment-by-moment urgency, co-writing a grippingly cinematic adaptation of David Haig’s 2014 stage play. The always-subtle Scott mesmerises as a decent, plain-speaking expert caught up in the high pressure system of a long-planned military operation. Meanwhile, rain-soaked carnage on beach battlefields and weather-buffeted balloons over Newfoundland reveal the elemental, existential stakes compelling one man to dissuade his complacent colleagues from disaster.
“A great example of performers expanding a narrative in the subtlest ways. The beauty of Pressure is that it gives us the contemplative space to think beyond the mere borders of this specific historical event, which is the ultimate aim of most good war movies.” – Vulture
Tickets
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